Sir Ronald Cohen Receives Innovation Award from The Rockefeller Foundation

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Sir Ronald Cohen Receives Innovation Award

from The Rockefeller Foundation

PR Newswire

NEW YORK, June 25, 2012

- "The Father of British Venture Capital" Honored for His Work on Impact

Investing

NEW YORK

,

June 25, 2012

/PRNewswire/ -- The Rockefeller Foundation,

celebrating 100 years of global innovation, today unveiled the names of the

individuals and institutions that will be honored as part of its second annual

Innovation Awards ceremony on

June 26, 2012

in

New York

.

Britain

's Sir Ronald Cohen, Chairman of The Portland Trust and Big Society

Capital and Director of Social Finance US, will receive an innovation award from

the Foundation for developing innovative financing models for social programs.

Other award recipients include Mr. Ratan Tata, Chairman of Tata Sons, Ltd.; J.

Carl Ganter, Director and Co

-

Founder of Circle of Blue; and representatives

from the international youth empowerment organization, Design for Change.

After co

-

founding the internationally renowned venture capital firm Apax

Partners Worldwide, Sir Ronald Cohen focused his efforts on helping the

disadvantaged and spurring economic development among poor and

vulnerable populations in the

United Kingdom

and the

Middle East

. In 2002, he

co-founded Bridges Ventures, which invests in the poorest parts of

Britain

and

which he has chaired for 10 years. As co

-

founder of both Social Finance U.K. in

2007 and its U.S. sister organization, Social Finance Incorporated in 2010, he

helped usher in the use of new financial securities including Social Impact

Bonds, which raise capital from private investors for non

-

profits whose work

addresses costly social problems.

"At the Rockefeller Foundation, we are constantly searching for innovative

solutions to some of the world's most pressing challenges, and we have been

big proponents of the social impact bonds that Sir Ronald Cohen helped

create," said Dr. Judith Rodin, President of The Rockefeller Foundation. "His

ground

-

breaking innovations in social finance are having a tremendous global

impact and have the ability to shift how we finance public services. We are

honored to have the opportunity to recognize his outstanding contributions by

presenting him with our Innovation Award."

The world's first Social Impact Bond, launched in 2010, is financing non-profits

working with ex

-

offenders to keep them out of the prison system. When this

work succeeds, the government of the

United Kingdom

will share a minority of

the savings with the bond's investors who will receive a fair return for taking the

risk of funding the prevention program.

Cohen will receive his award at the Foundation's annual Innovation Forum, to

be held in

Manhattan

on

June 26, 2012

. As part of his recognition, Social

Finance Entities in the

USA

, UK and

Israel

, Inc. will also share a

$100

,000 grant

from The Rockefeller Foundation in order to support future innovative work.

Past recipients of The Rockefeller Foundation's Innovation Award include

President Bill Clinton, Dr. Sania Nishtar of Heartfile, an NGO and think tank in

Pakistan

and Jane Weru of the Akiba Mashinani Trust in

Kenya

.

For a live stream of The Rockefeller Foundation Innovation Awards dinner,

please visit: http://centennial.rockefellerfoundation.org/events/entry/innovation-

forum-2012if

The Rockefeller Foundation

The Rockefeller Foundation's mission to promote the well-being of people

throughout the world has remained unchanged since its founding in 1913.

Today, that mission is applied to an era of rapid globalization. Our vision is that

this century will be one in which globalization's benefits are more widely shared

and its challenges are more easily weathered. To realize this vision, the

Foundation seeks to achieve two fundamental goals in our work. First, we seek

to build resilience that enhances individual, community and institutional

capacity to survive, adapt, and grow in the face of acute crises and chronic

stresses. Second, we seek to promote growth with equity in which the poor and

vulnerable have more access to opportunities that improve their lives. In order

to achieve these goals, the Foundation constructs its work into time-bound

initiatives that have defined objectives and strategies for impact. These

initiatives address challenges that lie either within or at the intersections of five

issue areas: basic survival safeguards, global health, environment and climate

change, urban economic security, and social and economic security. For more

information, please visit http://www.rockefellerfoundation.org

The Rockefeller Foundation Innovation Forum

The Rockefeller Foundation's annual Innovation Forum convenes some of the

most creative and inventive minds from the worlds of business, government,

civil society and journalism to bring innovation to bear on urgent challenges

facing poor or vulnerable people around the world. This year's Innovation

Forum will focus on one of today's most pressing issues

–

how to ensure that

the benefits of new technologies do not bypass the world's poor

. The

Foundation will seek to address this issue by showcasing some of the latest

cutting-edge technologies and inviting participants to imagine how these

technologies might benefit people around the world. The Foundation will then

leverage some of the ideas and recommendations discussed at the Forum to

search for new ways of ensuring rapid advancements in technology help those

who are most vulnerable.